Meta on Tuesday said it planned to appeal against the decision by the Competition Commission of India to impose a Rs 213.14 crore fine on it for abusing its dominant position in the field of messaging applications, The Indian Express reported.
The social media conglomerate said it disagreed with the order.
The Competition Commission of India’s order on Monday pertained to an update to the privacy policy of the messaging platform WhatsApp in 2021. Meta, formerly known as Facebook, acquired the platform in 2014.
In January 2021, WhatsApp sent its users a notification that it was preparing a new privacy policy and reserved the right to share some user data with Facebook.
On May 17, 2021, WhatsApp said that it was trying to get users on board to accept the new policies, but in case they did not do so, their accounts would slowly be deleted. But on May 25, WhatsApp clarified that it would not limit its functions to users who did not accept the new privacy policy.
The Competition Commission of India held on Monday that the “take-it-or-leave-it basis” nature of the update constituted imposing unfair conditions. The commission said that this forced users “to accept expanded data collection terms and sharing of data within Meta without any opt out”.
The commission told WhatsApp not to share data with other Meta companies for advertising purposes for five years. With respect to data sharing for purposes other than advertising, the order said that the messaging platform should include in its policy a detailed explanation of the data that it was sharing with other Meta firms.
Further, the commission said: “Sharing of user data collected on WhatsApp with other Meta Companies or Meta Company Products for purposes other than providing WhatsApp services shall not be made a condition for users to access WhatsApp service in India.”
Users should be given the choice to opt out of such data sharing, and this option must be conveyed to them through prominent in-app notifications and settings, the commission said.
Meta on Tuesday claimed that the 2021 update “did not change the privacy of people’s personal messages and was offered as a choice for users at the time”, according to The Indian Express. The social media conglomerate said it ensured that no one would have their accounts deleted or lose access to WhatsApp because of the update.
When WhatsApp sent notifications informing users about the policy change in 2021, the move was met with a massive backlash. Millions of users had moved to other platforms such as Telegram and Signal.
In response to the backlash, WhatsApp said it would do more to clear misinformation about the policy.